As Duke students crowded the lawn of Krzyzewskiville preparing for the most anticipated basketball game of the year, another Duke-North Carolina rivalry match took place in Charlottesville, Va. last weekend as the two teams faced off in the semifinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Tournament.
The No. 3 Blue Devils (6-1) cruised to victory Friday, topping No. 15 Baylor (3-4) in the first round of the tournament 4-1. Doubles pair Marianne Jodoin, a junior, and sophomore Annie Mulholland put the first doubles win on the board for Duke with an 8-4 victory against Baylor’s Alex Leatu and Victoria Kisialeva.
Senior captain Mary Clayton and sophomore Ester Goldfeld followed with another 8-4 victory against Emma Burgic and Kiah Generette, clinching the doubles point for the Blue Devils.
Although head coach Jamie Ashworth noted that Clayton and Goldfeld got off to a slow start, they did a tremendous job fighting their way back into the match.
On Saturday, in a rematch of Duke’s victory the previous weekend, the Blue Devils took on No. 14 Northwestern (4-3) for a spot in the semifinals of the tournament. The team played uphill for the majority of the match, but hard work on all courts led to a 4-1 victory against the Wildcats.
“We played with a lot of heart,” Ashworth told GoDuke.com. “We didn’t play as well as we can play, but we competed really well, we fought really well. We’ve got to keep playing with kind of fight.”
It was a hard-fought match for Duke, eking out close 8-7 victories to earn the first point of the tie in doubles. Clayton and Goldfeld, despite being down 7-4 early in the match, came back with a vengeance against Northwestern’s Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton.
“It’s really hard to play a team at that level twice in one week,” Ashworth said. “I think we handled ourselves really well.”
Duke’s real challenge came Sunday against rival No. 8 North Carolina. The Tar Heels, with eight of their nine players ranked by the ITA, started strong, acquiring early leads in both doubles and singles.
After a strong weekend of doubles with two wins, Jodoin and Mulholland could not hold off North Carolina’s Gina Suarez-Malaguti and Zoe De Bruycker, handing the Tar Heels the doubles point and the momentum going into singles.
Although the Blue Devils fought hard in singles, they would not win a single set. Ashworth noted that getting off to a slow start makes a significant impact on the outcome of the match.
“We learned a lot, in losing yesterday, about things we need to work on and about things we do and don’t do well,” he said. “We really got a feel for the level of UNC’s play compared to ours in those big points.”
After what Ashworth considered a successful weekend, the Blue Devils are back in Durham ready to take on No. 1 Florida on Sunday. In this upcoming rematch of last year’s NCAA tournament semifinal, Ashworth hopes that the team can put the loss to the Tar Heels behind them and prepare for the journey ahead.
“We’re hoping to get a good crowd,” Ashworth said. “A lot of the singles players are back for both teams, so hopefully it’ll make Sheffield [Indoor Tennis Stadium] a good atmosphere on Sunday.”
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